Working From Home? How To Cope Gracefully With Stress

onAugust 16, 2016

Working from home, particularly with your own business, can be liberating.

It’s easy to feel like earning your independence and your own income is all peaches and cream, passive income and Paypal notifications. But it’s not always quite that smooth, so you need to prepare to deal with any difficulties that arise.

Let’s set your business and life up so that you can continue to stay well, to stay motivated and to provide for yourself, yes?

Making these provisions requires emotional and physical action and I’ve got 3 top tips for you to begin today:

1. Take the time to get your positivity together

It sounds perfect to be able to do your work within your own home, working in your yoga trousers, laptop on knee. But it also has the effect of making your home a workplace.

When you work from home, it’s hard to leave work at the office…For those Type As among us, this is a dangerous incitement to perfectionism.

Feeling the kind of pressure that business puts you under, in your own home, can be defeating if you let it. So take the time to recharge when you need it, to enjoy your home as a place of relaxation.

This includes setting boundaried working hours, to make sure work-life doesn’t intrude on home-life. It can also be tremendously helpful to use resources that will motivate and energise you. Morning routines, meditation or even using inspiring resources through sites like Pinterest can give you a great, focused start to the day.

2. Make work extra wonderful and extra organised

When you’re running a business from home, or just working from it, (hello freelancers), you can fall into the trap of not preparing the home properly. Of not putting together a space that acts as a catalyst for a more organised work life.

Take some time to look over your home office and rearrange it. Does clutter really make you feel active, clear and ready to deliver your best?

If you use tech a lot, then use it to better organise work as well. An online postal mailbox can reduce all of your work mail to an electronic format. That makes it a lot easier to organise and store for safe-keeping. Don’t take on the hassle of having to organise lots of physical filing space.

Personally, I love Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying (along with pretty much everyone else). Her attitude towards documents, their draining nature resonates so truly for me. I cope with documents by separating the truly necessary and keeping them in an organised, accessible and preferably digital format. Phew, more space!

Also, don’t let all the documents take up space and slow down your computer. Try storing them on an external drive (I use this drive) and pleeeaaassssee for the love of all that is beautiful in the world, backup your data. Future you thanks you.

3. Build your health with your business

If there’s one thing that can easily intrude on your emotional health, it’s your physical health. So tackle the common health risks of working from home.

For example, most work from home is done at a computer.

Ergonomic equipment, like chairs and tables, can lessen the strain on your body.

If you can stand, you may want to consider, using an extending table that allows you to stand while working. Or doing some of your work at the kitchen counter (often the same height as a standing desk).

Remembering your posture, checking in with your body and what it needs is important.

Maintaining movement once in awhile is important. I use the free Chrome extension, Eyecare to prompt me to move every 15 minutes and to take care of my eyes. Bonus.

Take a look at the lighting of your environment, as well. You don’t want any electronic screens to be the brightest part of the room. Surround it with as much natural light as you can and even invest in a desk lamp. A high contrast between electronic lighting and its surroundings is a leading cause in eyestrain.Use tools that can make it easier to deal with working from home and build a resilient business.

Take the time to listen to your body and look after it.

Have moments of repose between work to centre yourself and get back on the side of positivity.

With these three tips, it can become a lot easier to manage the stress of working from home.

What are your favourite ways to manage stress with grace? Let me know in the comments!

This website/blog is an educational and informational resource for people living with illness, pain, disability, mental illness, and life crisis.

It is not a substitute for working with a doctor, registered psychologist or other professional. I cannot guarantee the outcome of following the recommendations provided and my statements about the potential outcome are expressions of opinion only. I make no guarantees about the information and recommendations provided herein.

By continuing to use/read/participate in this website/ blog you acknowledge that I cannot guarantee any particular results, as such outcomes are based on subjective factors that are not within my control. Therefore, following any information or recommendations provided on this website/blog are at your own risk. If you need health, business, or emotional advice, you should hire a doctor, business advisor, psychologist, or other professional.

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